On Monday, SNHU’s student-run and operated food truck, Munchiez Food Truck, placed second in Mobile Cuisine’s 2018 College Food Truck of the Year contest. After 12,000 total votes, Virginia Tech came away with the top prize.
Around 250 food trucks were submitted to Mobile Cuisine, an online resource blog based around the mobile food industry for food enthusiasts. Only 10 food trucks were selected for the public to vote upon.
Mobile Cuisine’s top school, Virginia Tech, operates two food trucks, The Grillfield and The Periodic Table. The Grillfield features Latino-fusion foods, including Smoked Pulled Pork Tortas and Beef Barbacoa Tortillas and the Periodic Table focuses on Asian-fusion meals, such as Thai Peanut Pork Rice Bowl and Lemongrass Chicken Yaki-Ramen.
Combined with an on-campus student population of about 35,000, Virginia Tech’s two food trucks made for strong competition against SNHU’s smaller scale school of around 3,000 on-campus students.
The Munchiez Marketing Team was ecstatic to learn Munchiez was a nominee in a national contest.
Jared Collins (‘19), marketing team manager, said, “I was looking at the Munchiez Twitter and saw we were tagged in a tweet by this guy who works for this Mobile Cuisine contest and I looked at it… and we were nominated for one of the top college food trucks in the country.”
SNHU was one of the smallest schools to be nominated in the contest. They were up against larger-scale schools such as Virginia Tech, UMass Amherst and Texas Tech.
“I thought it was crazy that a small school like SNHU could be a part of that,” Collins added.
With all their work in the classroom with business professor Sophia Koustas and catering to students on Friday nights, the Management Team works tirelessly to ensure Munchiez operates successfully.
Alex Glynn (‘19), marketing manager, mentioned how supportive SNHU was of Munchiez’s campaign. “It just shows that Munchiez does have an impact on the SNHU campus… Seeing this, and everyone voting and retweeting… It shows that the campus really does care about Munchiez, and it’s good to see.”
“As a class, we worked hard. Our work paid off in the long run and it would mean a lot to us,” said Marketing Team member Tom Blandini (‘20) as he was anticipating the results of the contest.
When talking about the second place finish Blandini (‘20) said, “I feel a little sad that we didn’t win, although I think the fact that we even made it to the top 12 is remarkable. Coming second is a huge accomplishment and I’m very proud of our team… Coming second is a huge step but there is still more that can be done to ensure we win it next time round.”
Collins (‘19) had a closing mention to the SNHU community, “We can’t thank the students, teachers, administrators and especially the Facilities department enough.”
Collins (‘19) final remark to all of SNHU, “Thank you for the support and keep coming to Munchiez!”
Follow Munchiez Food Truck on Social Media on Facebook (@MunchiezFoodTruck), Twitter (@MunchiezAtSNHU), and Instagram (@munchiezfoodtruck) for operation hours!
